ACK! Our systems are still having issues and it's taking much longer than expected to fix it... but rest assured we ARE actively working
on restoring everything to 100%. We really appreciate everyone's patience... and we also have a major surprise coming soon! *hint, hint*

It's been a busy, but happy Summer for me-- which is the reason that I may not have been around to visit you for awhile. Well... mostly happy. Car problems that were not cheap kept me from seeing my 5 month old granddaughter for a couple of weeks, but at least the car is finally working again.

My job has been keeping me busy also. We are engraving a lot of Stainless Steel mugs right now. We have one type where each shrink wrapped mug must be unwrapped by hand before it is engraved. It's time consuming, and my hands are getting a little sore... but hey... it's a living! I can listen to any kind of music that I want to while I unwrap them too.

I try to upload at least 5 wallpapers a month. I uploaded one wall on July 4th. I tried to get more up here during the month, but things kept coming up. Finally, today, July 31st, I rushed these 5 wallpapers up here. I got them uploaded with less than 3 hours to spare; August 1st starts on Desktop Nexus at 8pm my time. (Michigan, USA) It feels great to have beaten the clock! I hope to get many more walls uploaded during the month of August, because I have a backlog now...stay tuned! lol

As you can see, I've got 3 Cows Group walls up in this bunch; and 2 of them are especially silly... If you aren't a member of the Cows Group yet, you should check it out. There is such an incredible variety of cow wallpapers in it scenic, unusual, cute, humorous, etc... I think this group has become one of the most interesting (and fun!) ones on Desktop Nexus!

I hope that you are having a great Summer also, or a great Winter, depending on where you live!

Elaine

PS. PUPPYDAWG/ROGER news is that there isn't that much right now. He is doing better, but has an annoying, chronic cough. I do think he could use your prayers. He wants to come back to Desktop Nexus, but he needs a new computer to do so. He has enough money, but he isn't very mobile. Hopefully, one of his relatives will be able to help him out with that soon. Believe me, he misses everybody!

Hi to all of my friends & fans! I hope you are doing well and enjoying life on DN as well as in your own homes.

In January the weather in my area was on the frigidy-cold side. In other words, normal. I wanted something on my wallpaper screen that looked a lot warmer than I was feeling-- so I created the 3 wallpapers below. But I didn't get to upload them when I planned to.

Now that February is almost over, the weather has been well... weird. We've had everything here from extremely cold days, to days so mild I've almost been fooled into thinking Spring has come.

I know better though. I live in Michigan, the Great Lakes State of Unpredictable Weather. I'm convinced I'll find plenty of good use for these warm hued wallpapers before the Winter really ends.

Perhaps you will also! Hot Cocoa & marshmallows anybody?

Stay warm!

Elaine

PS. If you live south of the equator, I guess you'd better stay cool! But if you're a member of DN, you are always cool, in my book!

Betsey Butler, a member of Desktop Nexus since September of 2008, passed away on November 20th, 2016. I did not find this out until last Sunday, January 22nd.

Even if you did not know Betsey, please read on. I have something to say that you may never have thought of before; something that could help you and many others.

Most, if not all of us, have made some good friends on Desktop Nexus. Some of those friends may mean so much to you that you've even exchanged email addresses with them and have become pen pals, (or perhaps I should say email pals.)

Betsey and I were email pals. We wrote back & forth on a regular basis. Often it was just short notes. We had days where we wrote each other as much as 10 times. Sometimes 3 or 4 days would go by before we wrote again, but we always kept in touch.

On October 24, 2016, I wrote Betsey that I was about to go to Canada for the first time in 25 years, and that I'd let her know all about it when I got back. She wrote back;

"Have a great day!"

That was the last time that I ever heard from her.

I kept writing her, and got more and more concerned when I didn't get any replies. Betsey had dealt with some health problems, i.e. she had what she called a "small stroke" and had to go live in an assisted living center for awhile, but then she got her own apartment again. I began to wonder if she'd had another stroke and was back in assisted living with no computer access or something. It never occurred to me that she might have passed away.

I finally found out that she had from another one of her friends who was just as shocked as I was about it. My friend read it on her Facebook timeline. No details were given.

Whoever may still be reading this;

Please, if at all possible give a trusted friend or family member access to your Desktop Nexus account; your Face book account; your email account. You matter. People care for you. People will notice when you are missing.

Please have someone lined up to notify people, just in case you leave this earth. None of us knows the day or the hour when that might happen... If you pass on, people will wonder and eventually worry about what happened to you.

One Desktop Nexus member who did think to do that was Sparky/Kate Hatheway. Her sisters were able to access her Desktop Nexus account and let everybody know. That was such a wonderful to do...

I wrote to Betsey for 14 weeks without hearing from her. It hurts to realize now that I was writing to someone who would never read what I had to say.

I have been in mourning since last Sunday when I found out. That is why I've been wearing this wallpaper of Betsey's on my profile for the past week. (By the time you read this, I'll be wearing one of the one's I made for Betsey.I wish I could wear more than one wallpaper at a time!)

I put aside some abstract wallpapers I was going to upload last Sunday. Instead I have spent this week creating two wallpapers in memory of Betsey Butler.

This one is my mourning wallpaper...

I was only going to make the one wallpaper, but I decided that another one was needed. To the best of my knowledge, Betsey was a Christian and had Jesus in her heart. She is now in a better place...so I created this happier wallpaper in her memory also.

Please choose either of my two wallpapers and put your thoughts and memories of Betsey in the comments. I would love to read them and possibly learn some things about her that I didn't know before.

One more thing. Betsey fanned 387 members here. I've fanned only 159. If she has fanned anybody that I have not, and they are still active friends of yours, please let them know about Betsey too.

Thank you for reading this...and God Bless...all of you! This sad experience has made me realize just how special you are...

Hey EveryoneHope you all had a Wonderful Holiday Season Happy New Year!!!!!I've missed everyone here but I really had a great time with my family.♥Wishing Everyone A Wonderful Week in this New Year and May Peace and Happiness Be Yours in 2017.Hugs To All ♥Melissa♥

Yahooooooo! It's a brand new year! Be sure to party and celebrate it to the max! Best warm wishes for you in the New Year. I'm looking forward to more Collies, more Cows, more Wonderful Wallpapers, more Smiles, more Kindness, and more FUN on DN with you!

I'd like to take this time to Wish Everyone Happy Holiday and A Healthy, Safe New Years and Upcoming Year.

Thank You for Your Friendship through the years, your Great Uploads, Cards and Posts on My Page Also. God Bless♥

I Will Be Returning January 2nd as I will spending the entire Holiday Week with My Family and still much preparation to do and we Have So Many Things Planned. It is good that everyone in my family has this opportunity to be off at the same time I'm very excited